A BRIDGE will be glowing red-and-white and black-and-white on the eve of Saturday’s Wear-Tyne derby.

The 360-metre Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in Newcastle will glow in the familiar colours of both teams after dusk on Friday as anticipation grows.

The Nocturne project – the biggest light art work in Britain, which lights up the Metro bridge with a kaleidoscope of colours – has been specially programmed to pulse from black and white, to red and white, and then back again.

Metro operator Nexus are stoking up the atmosphere for the big match and using it to showcase the £300,000 Nocturne project.

Bernard Garner, director general of Nexus, said: “This is something we were keen to do the moment we launched the Nocturne project in April. The lighting effects promise to be truly stunning once it gets dark on Friday night.

“Lighting up the bridge in black and white and red and white is a great way to add to the build-up to Saturday’s big game and to show the people of Tyneside and Wearside exactly what we can do with the Nocturne project.”

Fans today said the light exhibition will add to their growing excitement ahead of the grudge clash, at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

Toon fan Billy Heats, 46, of North Shields, said: “It’s the game everyone looks for at the start of the season when the fixtures are announced and everyone looks forward to it from that moment on until the big day.”

Sunderland supporter Sam Kane, 28, said: “Fans of both clubs are often nervous about this game and I reckon a lot of them try to block it out of their mind until the day itself.”

The 140 LED lights which span the bridge are controlled by a computer, which has been programmed to ripple the team’s colours right along the length of the bridge.

Mr Garner added: “It demonstrates that anyone can have the colours from any particular photo broken down and relayed on to the structure of the Metro bridge.

“All you need to do is choose a colourful photo and send it to the website, www.metronocturne.com.”

Nayan Kulkarni, the artist behind the project, said: “This shows an element of what Nocturne is capable of and I hope the artwork plays some part in the build-up to the derby match on Saturday.

“All the fans supporting the teams can send an image capturing the spirit of their day to the website.”

Nocturne – longer than three football pitches – is planned to illuminate the Metro bridge for at least the next 15 years. Its low-energy LED lights will never repeat the same combination of colours twice as pre-programmed barcodes of colour ripple across the structure.